For a sad, desperate six months I worked at Borders and we used to joke about what edition of these books the customers were there to buy: "Chicken Soup for the Serial Killer's Soul", "Chicken Soup for the Junkie Child Molester's Soul", "Chicken Soup for the Uptight, Bleach Blonde Head of the Co-Op Committee's Soul".
@TRexstasy: Wait, one more: "Chicken Soup for Aforesaid Journalists who Obsessively Watch Food Network Programs and are Currently Contemplating a Career Shift to Cookery."
@snugbug: "Chicken Soup for the Clergy Person Who is Pulling her Hair Out Trying to Undo all the Horrible Pie-in-the-Sky Psycho-theology in These Chicken Soup Books Which People Also Give Her Regularly As Gifts".
In Beth Lisick's comedic memoir from a few years ago, Everybody Into the Pool, there's a scene (or two, can't recall) with this guy. I can't remember if she dates/fucks him or the guy in this guy's band .... but yeah. If you want this story a bit more fleshed out/insight on his character, check it out. And no, I am not Beth Lisick, nor do I know her. (Although I did want to BE her when I was sixteen...)
@superconnected (is it time to leave?): I knew them in SF. Her husband played in a band with Oren, who was a trainwreck, (drugs) but an incredible musician. He played about 10 instruments that I knew of. I hope he stays clean, too much talent to waste.
I once worked at a TV station where I had the pleasure of watching H. Jackson Brown, of "Life's Little Instruction Books" fame, have an absolute shitfit from hell because his IFB (in-ear headphone that let him hear his interviewers) was fucking up. Dude cussed everyone in the studio, got up and stormed out live. Good times.
The very greatest commentary on comestibles and consciousness-raising was delivered on the old Dick Cavett show by one "Jerome I. Rodale, the publisher of (among other things) Today’s Health Magazine." Besides offering a concotion of asparugus boiled in urine, a notable quote from the evening by Mr Rodale: ""I’ve decided to live to be a hundred." He famously did not last to the next commercial.
A ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Actually, I believe there are some very good self-help books out there, especially the ones that delve into psychobiology, written by therapists and are based on actual research. The tripe is easy to spot, they all claim happiness can be achieved by one, over-arching, simple technique. The Secret, for example, galls me no end. I live in LA and cannot tell you how many people I've met who have quoted The Secret, grrrr.
@pony_express: Interestingly, Jack Canfield is featured in the video for "The Secret." He tells a very candid story about how he was really broke and "decided" he was going to make $100K. According to the story, this was the beginning of the Chicken Soup books.
"Do as the priest says, not as the priest does" phenom.
Now by the love of G_d, do NOT tell me that author/pastor Robert Fulghum, he of the enormous early '90s inspirational bestseller "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things" is also a crook-douche. I sorta learned English by reading that book.
@MissTicklebritches: Oy, we is old, my friend. I've resisted revisiting that book. I suspect my cynical now-self would find it ridiculous; and I just want to preserve my 14-year-old memory that it's a cordial and inspiring bit of confessional lit.
@MissTicklebritches: I'd post a shout out to our class, but we really don't need to reveal our age. We had Fulghum in person, but every other commencement that year had the speaker cribbing from his book.
@snugbug: Everything I needed to know, I learned from cats: If you can get a gig where they feed you, clean up after you, let you nap all day, and all you have to do is chase a fake mouse around for their amusement a few minutes a day--TAKE IT!
@La Mareada: Oh eff it. Mid-30s here person here. Yeah, bi*tches: I was born in the fashion-challenged decade they call "the '70s," and my first conscious memory is my dad--in pink shirt with a ginormous collar--bouncing me up and down against the skies and imitating bird-twitter to amuse me.
@snugbug: Easy to say when your still mid 30s! I don't care about revealing my age, but there's at least two of us ladies of certain age on this thread. I wouldn't presume to speak for Miss Ticklebritches.(Maybe she was that extremely precocious 11 year old in the class.)
I remember reading that Observer profile, and getting to the part where it says "If your head isn't spinning yet, get this," and thinking, actually, no. My head isn't spinning.
Do people really need this kind of advice? Oh, I knew I needed an apartment, to like live in and stuff, and I saw all these ads for apartments and like brokers who could like totally help you get to living in them, but I could just never put it all together until I read this book.
@sakade: EXACTLY my point above (or below). Do you know how many times I have had someone call me to ask for a phone number that was readily available via Google. People are dumb, dumb, dumb.
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You should try it, sometime. It's fun.
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[cavett.blogs.nytimes.com]
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Now by the love of G_d, do NOT tell me that author/pastor Robert Fulghum, he of the enormous early '90s inspirational bestseller "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things" is also a crook-douche. I sorta learned English by reading that book.
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I will never because those books changed my life!
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